Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1887-01-27

ing Of utter helplessness. What
miserable failure must have made of
it," she thinks, ito have called forth
such remarks. Have so little control
over myself that the evidence of
breaking heart is plainly legble in my
faceP BreakingP / thought it was
broken on that terrible day! Shall l
ever forget it. Now 1t seems have il
all to live over again. l must leave
this place. cannot bear it! / cannot
see him with her day after day and
maintain an outward calm! Why, even
Alfred Warde suspected something, for
he would persist in talking of Norris
lovely affianced, as he called her, with
his gaze fixed upon my face. fear he
has not forgiven my rejection of him,
though thought he had recovered that
blow to his vanity long ago. Yes, yes.
l must go! will ask papa to take me
away early in the morning; / will not
see him again.
She goes to her father, who consents
at once, as he always does to any wish
of his only and idolized child. Athol
returns to her room. She kneels down
by the window which overlooks the
long piazza, throwing her arms upon
the window sill and burying her face in
them she burst into an uncomfortable
fit of weeping.
''She is so lovely, and he loves her;
could almost hate her! o, Morris, say
that you do not love her!" she ex-
claims, mournfully. Suddenly her
hands are taken in warm clasp and
her name breathed softly in the voice
she loves. "Athol. my love, my darl-
ing, say that you love me still" For
a moment, with thrill of unutterable
forgetting everything in the happiness
of his presence. but ut his last words,
she snatches them away.
"How dare you. sir! you, the promis-
ed husband of another! Your words are
an insult! Go this instant! She is NOV
ing from the window when these words
arrest her: There is some mistake;
stay. implore your
Athol involuntarly comes closer and
leans out of the window. "Are you
not engaged to marry your ward. Miss
Silvesterp'
Certainly not; how came you to i'm
agine SOP" answers Morris, with II look
of establishment
at is so reported"
"rhen report is false. Miss Sylvester
has been betrothed since childhood to
a young man whom she expects in a
few weeks from Europe to claim her.
and her whole heart Is his. d, Athol,
but moment since came out to battle
with my misery. was pacing to and
fro. when hearing voices and footsteps
approaching and wishing to avoid
everyone. came around on this side of
the piazza and paused beneath this VIM
dow. Words are all too feeble to por-
tray the Joy which filled my heart to
overlooking when l heard my own
name. as l then thought, breathed in
your loved voice, in tone of sorrow
and regret. But your manner leads me
TO believe was mistaken, that there is
some other Norris. Speak, Athol! there
is agony in the thought
IL have always loved YOU" she muir
murs softly. and their lips meet in a
long passionate kiss
my own love. my darling. my
wife!" And the past is forgotten in the
Joy of the present.
Athol has been happy wife many
years before she learns who prevented
her marriage years before. 1t has often
been a source of wonderment to her
and Norris, and what could have been
the motive.
At this time Alfred Warde is taken
very i'll. and thinks himself dying, sends
for Morris Langley, and confesses that,
feel ng very bitter toward Athol and
himself, and being something of ven-
triloquist, he conceived the idea of 60
ing to church and preventing the mar
riage. With what success has already
been told.-Oin Ophir, in Arkonsaw
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